But Trump suspended the initiative in September and gave lawmakers until March 5 to come up with a replacement that would protect the Dreamers, a name derived from proposed legislation called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or Dream Act. That 60 vote threshhold will be hard to reach, which means Majority Leader McConnell is likely to offer the proposals as amendments.
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The White House recently put forth its own proposal, one that will nearly certainly be offered as an amendment during the Senate debate. Anything that can get 60 votes will pass; everything else will fall by the wayside. Many Democrats consider some of the proposals, including limiting the relatives that legal immigrants can bring to the US, to be non-starters.
The bill talks of possibly legalizing almost 1.8 million “Dreamers” or recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, program, in exchange for some of the biggest enforcement changes in two decades. He added, “There’s no secret plan here to try to push this in any direction”.
Should an immigration compromise pass the Senate, its fate in the House would remain unclear, in part because some conservatives oppose legalizing undocumented migrants.
McConnell endorsed the bill on the Senate floor on Monday, calling it a “balanced proposal”. On Monday, McConnell threw his support behind that outline, which is being introduced in a bill by Sens.
“They better get it done quick because it’s this week or not at all”, said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn. Based on input from GOP colleagues, Coons said he might tweak his version of the legislation to include more immediate border security funding in a bid to win more Republican support.
The president and many Republicans want to expand that to include the visa lottery, which they want to end, and also family migration, which they want to limit.
“Everybody will have their say, and we’ll either get 60 votes for something, or we won’t”, Louisiana Republican John Kennedy said, praising McConnell’s decision to allow an open amendments process. Jeff Flake told reporters Monday night.
“We’re going to find out real soon whether Democrats are serious, whether or not they want a solution or whether they just want a campaign issue”, Sen.
President Donald Trump has offered more than Democrats asked on citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, but only in exchange for tough cutbacks on overall immigration and funding for a massive wall on the Mexican border.
DACA for border security strikes us as a good place to start crafting a deal.
This may prove to be too much for many Republican Senators to swallow.
“Yesterday, the majority leader said that the objective of this week is not to make a point, but to make law”, Schumer said Tuesday.
Although comprehensive reform – legislation that would address the approximately 11 million people in the country illegally – would be ideal, it is far from realistic given the anti-immigration demands, including against legal immigrants, coming from the White House. “Rather, this is the moment for a narrow bill”, the New York Democrat said. “And every ounce of our energy is going into finding one that can pass”. Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) nevertheless swayed enough Democrats to vote for the budget deal by promising on Thursday that “we will bring a solution to the floor, one the president will sign”. Democrats generally despise Trump’s generous compromise offer, and as Sen.
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An immigrant who was brought to the USA illegally as a child castigated Democrats, particularly Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), over the weekend for “using” Dreamers like him as political “pawns”.
